[ { "id": 205613, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "150 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\ncanal which would give access to warehouses and so on built in the Valley (a plan which A. T. Gordon, the Land Officer, endorsed in the 'dream' of the future City of Victoria which he communicated to Pottinger in 1843).4 But if Pottinger's description is accurate, it would have taken a good deal of imagination to see it that way. \n\nThe East Point site was purchased, at the first Land Sale on 14 June 1841, in the name of Captain William Morgan, a ship's captain who may have been Jardine's Hong Kong manager, and the actual area purchased was not specified then or when Pottinger's Second Land Committee was attempting to settle the Land Question in Hong Kong. We learn, from a later source, that it amounted to almost 170,000 square feet (about 3.4 acres). It is, however, often overlooked that the firm also purchased three other marine lots at the same sale: numbers 26, 27 and 28 and it is here that they had already commenced building by the time of the sale. This contention is upheld by a number of contemporary accounts of the sale. The Canton Register (predecessor of the Hong Kong Register) intimates that one purchaser had commenced building before the sale,6 \n\nWe are told in an unpublished history of the early years of Jardine, Matheson & Co. that in February 1841, within a month of the naval forces taking possession of the island, that they had erected a large matshed godown above the foreshore. An anonymous correspondent of the China Mail, writing 8 years after the event, but who attended the first sale in 1841, states that Matheson, in order to avoid the expenses involved in landing goods at Macao for transhipment, resolved to land a consignment of cotton at Hong Kong. To make this possible, he sent from Macao materials for the erection of a godown. This building, he avers, was four feet above the ground at the date of the sale and was sited on what later became known as the Commissariat Stores. The fact that they were building and had ground cleared, he continues, gave additional value to adjoining lots. As will be seen, Marine Lots 26, 27 and 28 were shortly to become the Commissariat stores. If further support is needed, I may quote from Tarrant's History of Hong Kong, published in 1861 or 1862: he states that \"some months before the sale......Messrs Jardine, Matheson & Co, erected those godowns which now form part of the Naval Yard, near the Canton Bazaar.” \n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205615, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "152\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nchose two lots to the west, which were designated at the time 72 and 73.12 It was at this time, however, that the firm definitely moved out to East Point and, immediately on the transaction regarding their property being settled, they proceeded to erect what became their main godowns at East Point.13 The firm had already acquired property in the area of East Point, Wongneichung and Sookunpoo, if only because no-one else seemed interested at the time and it was there cheaply for the asking. In October 1841, they instructed Morgan to obtain a grant of the hill behind East Point, which he immediately did14 and a little later obtained permission from Pottinger to purchase from its Chinese proprietors the slope on the east side of this hill.15 They also purchased from a merchant named Leighton a town lot on which he had built a godown16 and a suburban lot which he had prepared for building. Captain Morgan also secured a town lot on which a bazaar was built (Jardine's Bazaar not to be confused with Morgan's Bazaar near the barracks), and in addition he built a house on Caroline's Hill for himself which was known for a few years as Captain Morgan's Bungalow.\n\nLike most of the other large mercantile houses, Jardine, Matheson & Co. did not move their headquarters to Hong Kong from Macao until 1844. As shown above, there is ample evidence that East Point was not their first choice for the new headquarters, though the facility with which they were able to secure large areas of land at East Point may well have dictated a move even if the circumstances which I have described had not come about.\n\nHong Kong, 1968\n\nDAFYDD Emrys Evans\n\nMr. Evans, who has been on special leave of absence from the University of London, 1966-68, is a lecturer in the Department of Laws, London School of Economics and Political Science.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205616, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 158, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n153\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Minutes of Evidence, Q. 2260.\n\n2 G. R. Sayer, Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence and Coming of Age, 1937, p. 99.\n\n3 Pottinger to Lord Stanley, (No. 15 of 1844), 28 February 1844, (CO129/5/£174) The occasion of this despatch was Admiral Cochrane's suggestion that East Point would make the best site for a naval depot and that Jardine, Matheson & Co. should be removed to make way: see Cochrane to Pottinger, 23 February 1844 (CO129/5/£182).\n\n4 Gordon to Malcolm, 6 July 1843 (CO129/2/f.138).\n\n5 See Friend of China, 2 November 1850.\n\n6 Canton Register, 29 June 1841.\n\n7 E. J. Yorke, The Princely House, (unpublished), p. 487.\n\n8 China Mail, 20 December 1849.\n\n9 Apparently published in 1861 or early 1862 in either Canton or Hong Kong. It was a reprint of articles written by Tarrant in his newspaper, the Friend of China, at the time when he was publishing it in Canton. For this extract, see Friend of China, 9 November 1861.\n\n10 Canton Press, 19 February 1842.\n\n11 See Hong Kong Register, 15 January 1850. The siting is amply demonstrated from maps also. And see Minute by Pottinger on the question of accommodation for General D'Aguilar, Saltoun's successor: January 1844 (CO129/5/f.93).\n\n22\n\n12 Malcolm to Jardine, Matheson & Co., 17 February 1842 (CO129/5/f.96).\n\n13 See Hong Kong Register, 15 January 1850.\n\n14 Yorke, op. cit., p. 488.\n\n15 Pottinger to Jardine, Matheson & Co., 3 June 1842 (CO129/5/f.224).\n\n16 The firm claimed later that this godown belonged to their Bombay agent, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, without whose consent they were unable to comply with a request that it be sold to the military for use as barracks: see Pottinger to Saltoun, 26 October 1843 (CO129/5/f.524).\n\n17 Yorke, op. cit., p. 491.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207143, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "208 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nwas bought by the Church and a large number of houses were built for the poor. In 1849, the Roman Catholics acquired land next to the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley and ceased burying in the old cemetery, though headstones remained scattered about for a long time. \n\nAnother Roman Catholic institution was located south of Queen's Road on the waterfront between what is the present Anton Street and Li Chit Street. Here the French Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1848, built an orphanage called the Asile des Sainte Enfance. \n\nIn 1845, two Americans, Charles Emery and George Frazer, moved their ship-building yard from Kowloon Point to a lot east of the French Orphanage. The yard passed through a succession of owners. In 1880 George Fenwick came into possession. He gave his name to the present Fenwick Street. In 1871 the Hong Kong Pier and Godown Company was launched to develop extensive wharfing and storage facilities. It occupied the land between the Orphanage and the shipyard. The present Gresson Street intersects the original property. The venture was not a success and the Company went into liquidation in 1873. In 1876 several Europeans financed by Chinese capital built the Oriental Sugar Refinery on property now defined by Swatow and Amoy Streets. It also soon failed and passed into receivership. Eventually, it was taken over by Jardine, Matheson and Company and was merged with their China Sugar Refining plant at East Point. \n\nThe first Protestant Chapel in the area was built in 1863 on Wan Chai Road by the London Missionary Society. A school was also opened, supported by Chinese subscriptions. The present Ying-Wa Girls School had its origins in the Wanchai Girls' Boarding School of the London Missionary Society opened in 1888. The Wanchai Chinese Methodist Church on the triangle of Hennessy Road, Fenwick Street, and Queen's Road East was occupied in 1936. \n\nThe Urban Services Office, where we are having tea, and the Wanchai Post Office next to it, are located on a lot which was sold to the first American resident of Hong Kong, Charles V. Gillespie. Here, in the spring of 1842, he built a substantial brick house of six rooms surrounded by a verandah at a cost of about $2,800. It was called “Jorrock's Hall” (sic) and was located on Inland Lot 14. The adjoining Lot No. 15 was also owned by Gillespie. He sold it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213636, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "207\n\nJack Edwards, since well-known for his work on behalf of ex-P.O.W.s, and their families. The trial began on October 3rd 1946 and ended with convictions two weeks later. I need say no more as Jack Edwards had written a graphic account of the conditions at Kinkaseki in his book \"Banzai you Bastards\".\n\nMy second case turned into a marathon. It opened to a crowded courtroom on October 21st 1946 and ended in an equally-crowded court on November 30th - Hong Kong's longest-running War Crimes Trial. The Royal Navy took a special interest in the case due to the number of Naval Personnel who had perished, and the Hong Kong Commodore sent out a signal that all Naval Officers not on sea duty were to attend the opening of the trial in No.1 uniform with medals and swords. About fifty did so, arriving early to take up the front spectator seats in the Jardine East Point Godown (since demolished) which had been furnished as a court. A Naval Officer sat as a member of the Tribunal.\n\nThe accused was of medium height, and aged 45. He held himself well in the dock. He spoke passable English, but preferred to give evidence in his own language. The accused, Captain Kyoda Shigeru, had been Master of the \"Lisbon Maru\" which sailed from Hong Kong for Tokyo on September 27th 1942. It had on board, in overcrowded conditions, 1816 undernourished British and Allied P.O.W.s who were being moved to Japan to work in factories there. It also carried a substantial number of Japanese troops returning for relocation and a general cargo. Three days after sailing from Hong Kong the \"Lisbon Maru\" was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine which punched a hole in the stern and thereafter the vessel was slowly sinking. The Officer-in-charge of the P.O.W. detachment, a young Lieutenant Wada, ordered the accused to batten down the prisoners in the hatches, and to remove the ventilation chutes.\n\nAccording to evidence, the accused first argued with Lt. Wada, but when the order was repeated he gave instructions to the Ship's Carpenter to carry it out. As the ship slowly sank, conditions in the holds became more and more intolerable, and deaths due to drowning and asphyxia began to occur. No food or water was supplied. The air was foul, and they were in darkness. There were no latrine facilities.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 } ]